Red Art Games has released the Joe & Mac Retro Collection, three Super Nintendo games that Data East built on its 1991 arcade hit. It is out digitally on Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Steam. Steam lists it at $19.99, with 10% off at launch.
The set holds Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja, Congo’s Caper and Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics. Data East released all three on the Super Nintendo between 1991 and 1995. In Japan they belong to the Tatakae Genshijin series, so Congo’s Caper, a game about a half-monkey boy, was sold there as Tatakae Genshijin 2. Each game comes in both its Western version and its uncensored Japanese one.
What the Super Nintendo Caveman Ninja changed from the arcade
The SNES Caveman Ninja is not the arcade game. Data East rebuilt it for the console, out in Japan in December 1991 and in North America in January 1992. It added an overworld map for picking levels, longer stages and bonus rounds. It also dropped some weapons, lost the charge on others and swapped in a different final boss.
So the arcade original, the version most people mean when they say Caveman Ninja, is not in this collection. Neither is the later arcade sequel, Joe & Mac Returns. The Japanese versions matter for one scene. The Japanese Caveman Ninja opens with cavemen dragging cavewomen by the hair, and Data East cut it from the US release, as the game’s history records.
Red Art Studios, the publisher’s in-house team, built the collection. It adds save states, rewind, a CRT filter, aspect-ratio options and a new Boss Rush Mode. The first two games play in two-player co-op. A virtual unboxing shows the original boxes, manuals and cartridges, and a music player holds all three soundtracks.
Lost in the Tropics is the odd one. It adds light role-playing, and you can court your Stone Age girlfriend, marry her and have a child (in a platformer about clubbing dinosaurs). Congo’s Caper runs to 35 levels, against Caveman Ninja’s 12.
For Caveman Ninja, the Japanese SNES version in this set is the one to play, since it is the full console game with nothing cut. Anyone who wants the arcade feel is better served by New Joe & Mac – Caveman Ninja, the 2022 remake from Microids and Mr. Nutz Studio.
Physical Standard, Deluxe and Rock editions follow on Switch and PS5 in early 2027. The Deluxe edition is limited to 500 copies per platform and sold only through Red Art Games’ shop.
I will be starting with the Japanese version, for the scene Data East decided was too much (it was).
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